Denied boarding and stranded overnight. Why won’t Air Canada cover my $178 hotel bill?

Q: My husband and I were stranded in Toronto on our way from Stockholm to Cleveland after Lufthansa rebooked our flights due to a flight delay. The flights included a leg on Air Canada from Toronto to Cleveland. But even though we had boarding passes and a rebooking itinerary, Air Canada denied me boarding, claiming my ticket was not valid. (My husband’s boarding passes were valid.) Lufthansa refused to help, leaving me to pay $178 for a hotel. Neither airline will take responsibility. We flew home the next day. What can I do?

— Bonnie Thiel, Broadview Heights, Ohio

A: When Lufthansa rebooked your flights, it should have ensured your ticket was valid on all segments — including the Air Canada leg back to Cleveland. Under EU Regulation 261/2004, which governs your initial delayed flight from Stockholm, Lufthansa had a duty to reroute you and cover necessary expenses caused by its delay. Issuing a faulty boarding pass and leaving you stranded in Toronto is a clear breach of that obligation.

Air Canada also failed you. The Montreal Convention requires airlines to honor valid tickets and boarding passes. If there was a ticketing error, it should have worked with Lufthansa to resolve it immediately, not abandon you at the gate. Both airlines’ “not our problem” responses are unacceptable.

You did almost everything right: You kept records and escalated your case to both carriers. Could you have done more? Maybe. First, booking a hotel yourself should have been your last resort. If you’re stuck in a stopover city, you need to apply pressure to your airline to help you then and there. Don’t book a hotel and then try to negotiate a refund, because airlines will always try to avoid paying.

Second, a brief, polite email to one of the airline’s executives might have helped. I list the executive contacts for Air Canada and Lufthansa on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. Also, an appeal to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) could have helped the airlines see the error of their ways.

So what went wrong? This was classic code-share confusion. In the correspondence you provided, Lufthansa wanted Air Canada to take responsibility for the flight because it was the “operating” carrier. But Air Canada wanted Lufthansa to take responsibility because its flight from Frankfurt to Toronto was delayed. As a result, no one would take responsibility. Come on!

I recommended that you send a complaint to the DOT, which regulates airlines in the United States, where you booked your ticket. You did, and you received a full refund for your hotel from Lufthansa.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him on his site.